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Against crimson theater drapes at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, Norway's national church expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion it had inflicted.

“Norway's church has caused the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, announced this Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in a loss of faith for some, the bishop admitted. A church service at the cathedral in Oslo was arranged to take place after his statement.

This formal apology was delivered at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and left nine seriously injured throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years in prison for carrying out the attacks.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the biggest religious group in Norway – for years sidelined the LGBTQ+ community, preventing them to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, bishops of the church referred to homosexual individuals as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, becoming the second in the world to allow same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

During 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church commenced the ordination of homosexual ministers, and same-sex couples have been able to have church weddings starting in 2017. Last year, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was called a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology was met with varied responses. The head of a network of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “finally marked the end of a difficult period in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “overdue for individuals who lost their lives to AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the epidemic to be God’s punishment”.

Internationally, several faith-based organizations have attempted to reconcile for their past behavior towards LGBTQ+ people. In 2023, England's church expressed regret for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, although it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages in church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and family members, but stayed firm in its belief that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church of Canada issued an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, describing it as a confirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to rejoice and take pleasure in the beauty of all creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, stated. “We have hurt individuals rather than pursuing healing. We express our regret.”